In Brief – May 2015

·        Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Slaughter and May have picked up the leading roles in Virgin Group and CVC Capital Partners’ sale of 80 per cent of its stake in Virgin Active to South Africa’s Brait for £682 million. The deal gives the health club company an enterprise value of £1.3 billion. CVC, which bought 51 per cent of Virgin Active in 2011 when the company was valued at £900 million, is selling its entire stake to Brait. Virgin Group is reducing its shareholding from around 49 per cent to 20 per cent, meaning Brait now owns the controlling interest in the company.

·        Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton andMilbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy have advised on Asia’s largest bond offering so far this year, the USD5 billion bond offering by state-owned Malaysian company Petronas. Cleary represented Kuala Lumper-based Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas). Milbank’s Singapore-based securities partner Naomi Ishikawa led the deal team working on behalf of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank), and Malaysia’s CIMB.

·        Slaughter and May is advising Royal Dutch Shell on its recommended cash and share valued at £47bn to take over natural gas company BG Group, represented by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Shell expects the combination to accelerate its growth strategy in global LNG and deep water. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals in the EU, China, Brazil and Australia, the approval of BG Group’s and Shell’s shareholders. It is expected that the acquisition will be completed in early 2016.